WITCH OF THE END

Luna stared at the ancient ruins with a grim expression. The ancient civilization of the divine realm was long gone with only a few of its structures still halfway buried in the red sand as if begging to not be swallowed by this harsh world. All of this happened due to the rise Cursed Creatures and corruption that hand in hand consumed everything that breathed and had life. The beings who once occupied this part of the divine realm had faced a much worse end by becoming restless corpses that attacked anything that moved.

Once the corruption was done with this world, it proceeded to the Mortal realm with cursed creatures as its carriers. The Gateways too leaked Black Ether, making the destruction of their realm much worse by spreading it faster. But unlike the beings of the divine realm who faced an unavoidable end, the humans of the Mortal realm gained zenshi which granted them full immunity against black ether and a fighting chance against the cursed creatures.

That’s why Luna had all these questions gnawing in her mind and giving her headaches constantly. Why didn’t the beings of the divine realm have zenshi to protect them? Why were the people of the Mortal Realm given a fighting chance? And why is there a spell that keeps things hidden?

How much of what they knew was true?

After her two recent life-changing events, Luna was starting to believe that this Tower was connected to both her train incidents. She didn’t exactly know how it connected to what happened on the train when traveling to Hansho, but she was sure it was. This wasn't just her paranoia speaking.

“The fall, the stars…Yong Feng. I can still remember them.” She murmured, strongly. Each time now and then, she repeated those words out to make sure that she hadn’t forgotten anything, yet.

Darkness’s voice then sounded through the communication device connected to her ear. “Most of the undead here are already dead…or more dead. I think our two captains were here.”

She ended her sentence with a giggle. The sight of violence always made her the weirdest of the bunch.

‘That explains why there are no abominations, I guess.’ However, Darkness’s communication gave her a little hope.

“Alright. I will continue looking around for anything that might be of use to us. We’ll rest here for a few hours…I sense nothing either so we might be safe. However, that doesn’t mean you should let your guard down. Keep Alert.”

“Aye, captain!”

Darkness and Gail answered at the same time before they turned off their communications.

The return of a familiar silence made Luna shiver.

“I might as well use the free time to explore this place.”

With a sigh, she turned off her communication and continued to go deeper into the ruined establishment. The solemn silence grew eerie with each step, but Luna was born and raised with nerves of steel.

The sand under her feet crunched loudly as she studied the still-standing structures. These ruined structures were indeed made using an ancient type of architecture since technology wasn’t a thing in the divine realm. At least not the technology in their world. The buildings were made out of a special red type of stone that glistened faintly under the sun’s radiance. And when Luna tried scanning it, the suit’s intelligence couldn’t find anything with a similar composition on Earth.

"Not surprised, I guess."

Out of curiosity, Luna then dismissed the nanoskin around her hands and touched the red.

‘Huh!’

It was cold to the touch which was strange for something that spent most of the time under the sun. Meanwhile, her hands were already burning up under the red sun’s light. This only made her more curious.

Although it felt pointless to try, she closed her eyes and tried extending her senses beyond the red wall. Her range wasn’t as good as that of the monks who trained her in this art, but if she tried hard enough she could go as far as fifty meters without stressing herself that much.

Anyway, using qi to sense required one to fully connect their soul and allow their energy to further into the earth. Qi was the source of life, so it needed life to be influenced. However, for some odd reason, those with zenshi could weakly use this ability.

She took in a deep breath and her perception changed, drowning her world in darkness. Luna didn’t sense any life inside, but as her life energy stretched further, she noticed that the interior of the building was much larger. It was so large that her range could not make out the entire structure.

Luna was now intrigued by this discovery.

So…

Without causing much noise, she cut a human-sized hole through the red stone. On cutting down the rock, she was met by a chilling coldness that she felt through her suit. Suddenly, she felt hesitant about going any further than where she was.

The sun's red light barely cut through the intense darkness before her. And the eerie feeling she felt earlier only became stronger when she stepped forward and jumped onto one of the weak wooden beams. But there was no turning back. After all, Luna was one curious cat.

By watching her steps and relying on her qi sense, Luna managed to navigate the wooden pathways till she found a way down. To her surprise, no sand had found its way to the floors. There was no crunch to indicate that not a single grain of sand had made it here despite the structure being buried in the sand.

For a moment, Luna froze when she realized this wasn’t a normal structure.

“Wow.” Her breath trembled as she took in the sight. She needed a moment to take it in.

Right now, she stood at the threshold of her discovery, her heart pounding with a mix of excitement and trepidation. The red sunlight cast an ethereal glow over the scene, highlighting the weathered red tone and intricate carvings that adorned the building's facade.

As she stepped closer, Luna's suit illuminated more details, revealing that the building was not merely a relic of some long-forgotten civilization, but a grand temple of sorts that happened to be submerged in the red sand.

The entrance, a gaping maw framed by towering columns, remained shut behind her to keep the sand away from blasting in like a powerful wave and burying her.

Taking a deep breath, Luna continued deeper inside, her footsteps echoing softly against the stone floor. The temperature dropped sharply as she moved further into the temple, the air growing colder and damper with each step. Wherever the light of her device touched, it revealed faded murals and hieroglyphs that hinted at the temple's ancient origins and the deities it once honored.

There, a few words were inscribed on the walls in ancient languages Luna hadn’t seen before.

“Biscuits…”

She cursed and scanned the murals, storing the texts automatically. Maybe someone could decipher them when she returned to the real world.

The eeriness in the air continued to linger and Luna continued scanning and storing the ancient temple’s murals.

When she reached a certain point of the temple, her instincts kicked in and she drew her dark blade almost instantly. She looked around with caution and noticed the thick darkness was eating away the light from outside.

Soon, the temple was dark again and her only light source was the device of her suit.